🎶 Marat we’re poor, and the poor stay poor / Marat don’t make us wait any more / We want our rights, and we don’t care how! / We want a revolution…now!—Marat/Sade
There is a long-standing discussion of why it was that the 2024 US public believed that the economy was poor when in fact it was the envy of the world, people at the lowest income levels were making gains, and the labor market was the best in a generation.
Two notes to critics of the United States on why the founding of the United States was such a radical break, despite all flaws, with a few notes on the broader historical context.
“Small wheel turning by the fire and rod
Big wheel turning by the grace of God
Every time that wheel turn round
Bound to cover just a little more ground”
The Wheel
So, there’s a thunderstorm alert, the revelers have been asked to take shelter. Some are refusing. Almost all the buildings are closed, since it’s a holiday. Some have taken shelter in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, prompting the remark that conservatives have finally been brought to visit there. The Chinese scholars are saying Heaven has stripped us of its Mandate. The Jews are talking about Jewish space lasers.
Boize moi!
The socialist Nathan Newman has written a good explainer on how it is that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have both produced one of the worst policy platforms and some of the best politicians of our time. The entire piece is worth reading.
Today the Roberts Court handed down a decision in Trump v Slaughter in which the Six Oathbreakers of the Roberts Court decided that regulatory agencies couldn’t possible be independent of the king, er, President unless they were the Federal Reserve and also made a shout-out to the traitors of the Confederacy. Paul Krugman remarked that this decision “makes it extremely difficult for the economy to function.” There’s a lot of legal and economic commentary by experts, and I am here adding a few notes of my own.
